You know what everyone hates? Being pitched at. And it comes in so many forms today because really, we’re not entirely sure how to create hype for our books in a palatable way that won’t turn off potential readers.

We feel stuck having to try a variety of pitches that don’t ever seem to work:

The illiterate Tweet:

“Buy my gr8 book bcuz 5 stars & *50 Twitter fRiEns sAy itS BeSt BoOk Dey EverRrrR ReAd #amwriting #porgforpresident #childishgambino.”

The gun to their head:

“BUY MY BOOK!”

The show-off:

“Look how pretty the cover is. It’s so unique and it looks professional like Marissa Meyer’s books. Won’t U buy??”

The morality police:

“No, I’m not giving this away for free. This is my life’s work. If you ask for a free copy then you’re basically spitting in my face. Writers are artists and all artists deserve to make a living doing what they love. So show your support and respect for authors by BUYING their books.” (I’ve been guilty of this one multiple times and still firmly believe it.)

The bargainer:

“If you buy all my books at this extremely discounted price I will post about you and your book on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even feature you as a character in my book.”

Fact is, we just want people to read our books. And likewise, we know that if just one person spends an amount equal to that of pocket change, they’d have an incredible read on their hands.

So how do we do it? How do we ORGANICALLY create hype for our novels and market our books without pitching potential readers to death?

There are three *CREATIVE* ways we can gather an audience without selling our souls or living divided between “writer” and “marketer”:

(So how do we avoid living like Two Face all our lives?)

1. Mood Boards/ Aesthetic Collage
2. Character Interviews
3. Map Showcasing

A new trend is on the rise and it’s powerful. It goes by a few names: mood board, aesthetic collage, etc. 

But the goal is the same: to garner interest in your novel by sharing a group of beautiful, themed pictures that represent your book’s plot or your individual characters. More often, however, people like to create mood boards based on their characters.

The idea is to create a beautiful, appealing collage which introduces your book to friends and fans in a fun, interesting way. It’s not suffocating, it’s not pushing pitches.

This creative route is a perfect way to engage your audience to respond, and ultimately, want to know more about your book.

These examples below are aesthetic mood boards representing themes in each of my novels:

These mood boards vary according to what each book is about. But their themes are clean, uniform, and pleasing to the eye. 

Specifically, these aesthetic collages:

• Stick to a uniform color scheme
• Pose a light or dark feel
• Share a glimpse into characters or theme

Mmmmk that’s great Rae but where would you share something like this?

Instagram is a fantastic place to showcase mood boards. Why? Because that’s what Instagrammers (gramees??) are specifically looking for. Peeps are looking to follow beautiful, inspiring feeds. Plus sharing your story’s aesthetic on Instagram is a great, creative way to share something about your book that interests potential readers (without murdering them with sales pitches). Post an aesthetic collage to your story with hashtags like:

#aesthetic #bookstagram #writersofig #moodboard #WIP #writingcommunity #booksofig #teenwriters #bookishcommunity #bookish

–And more! These great hashtags will gather a wide variety of fellow writers and readers looking to connect and appreciate your pretty pics! 😉

Another great place to showcase mood boards is on Pinterest. Why? Because Pinterest helps you build your own aesthetic through boards you follow and more.

So if you see a picture that captures your story’s aesthetic, why not create a mood board around it?

Create a specific board or category within your board about one of your books like so:

The best part about this is that you get to scroll through Pinterest for inspiring photos that represent your story! It gives life to your book before readers even open the pages. 

So the keys to take away from mood boards/ aesthetic collages are:

• They’re a creative, fun way to showcase your characters or novels.
• They engage readers with beautiful pictures depicting your characters or story ideas.
• You can share boards like this on Pinterest or Instagram (two social media platforms that cater to beautiful pictures).

Help potential readers get to know a future friend by sharing a character interview with them! It’s a fantastic way to help readers view your characters as real people, people who have a fascinating story to share with the world.

Ok! But what are some questions I should ask my characters??

Don’t fret my friend!

Basics are great:

• What’s your name?
• Where do you live?
• What do you like to do in your free time?
• What is your goal in life?
• Do you have a crush on anyone?
• Do you know who your parents are? If so, do you like them?

Get fun and creative with it though! Even if your character lives in a futuristic dystopian fantasy realm, ask questions that bring them back down to Earth for your potential readers:

• What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
• What do you like to do for fun?
• Have you ever ridden a bike before?
• Do you have any pets?
• What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?

If you want to get even more creative with your questions, then here’s a list of 40 surprisingly defining questions to ask your characters!

Where would I share something like this, Rae?

Instagram is a great place to share something like this. Use pictures that capture your characters well and introduce them to your followers either via your Story or your feed with a brief bio like so:

You can even keep this forever by creating a Highlight about it! The “My Novels” highlight on my Instagram, not only shares my book covers, but it actually introduces my characters from each story and their bios. It helps readers get an idea what each novel is about and WHO it’s about. Plus it stays just under my bio fo-eva!

What’s great about sharing this on Instagram is you can ask followers to ask questions about your characters themselves and then you can share their question on your feed. They get a little shout out and everyone gets to know your character better! (It’s a real win-win technique) 😉

Naturally, you can also share your character interviews on your blog as a special book campaign post. I imagine you could share it on Facebook but honestly, I don’t know a SCRAP about Facebook because I hate it and never use it so you’d know better than me about that, lol.

What you can take away from a character interview is this:

• It helps potential readers connect with your characters before they even open your book.
• A question and answer is a fun way to get your audience to interact with your characters too.
• Character interviews can be posted on Instagram or on your own personal blog.
• It’s an organic way to advertise what your book is about and WHO it’s about.

So we’ve covered how potential readers can get to know your characters and get a feel for your book’s theme… now we can introduce them to your fictional world through maps.

Maps, Rae?

Maps, friend.

Maps give potential readers a glimpse into your world and where they are likely to explore while they read your story. Your map doesn’t have to look like a rainbow vomited all over it either. Some of the most beloved maps are those which look exactly like they’ve been sitting on a dusty, old bookshelf for a thousand years, like this!:

Where would I share a map, Rae?

You know what I’m gunna say. That’s right. Instagram. Share it as a post on Instagram– even an incomplete map! Or why not share your process on a Live video feed?

If you have a YouTube channel, you can share your map building process step-by-step. Viewers are scouring YouTube for How-To videos, so why not provide them one that also gives them a glimpse of your fictional world? Kill two birds, ya’ know?

Reddit I believe is a great platform to share fantasy maps as well!

Another great social network to use for this is Twitter. It offers a quick glimpse that’s sure to grab the attention of scrollers. In fact, tweets with images are 34% more likely to get retweeted than tweets with no images.

(don’t have a fantasy map but would like to create one? Don’t know where to begin? Check out this article here)

But Rae, my book doesn’t have a map/really need one. What now? 

No worries. Draw, sketch or paint pictures of what your story’s settings or characters’ homes look like. Draw places that are pivotal to your story’s plot and share that with your friends.

Where would I share this sort of thing?

Same places as mentioned before, compadre.

So here’s what you need to know about using maps to organically procure interest in your story:

• They give potential readers an exciting unofficial tour of your fantasy world and what they can expect to find there.
• Sharing pictures of even basic maps is a great share idea on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit and probs even Facebook.
• Even pictures of places, homes, or settings share a wealth of interesting info about your story to potential readers.

STOP PITCHING. STOP BEGGING. STOP SELLING AT PEOPLE.

Start engaging potential readers organically through these three creative means guaranteed to bring results:

1. Mood boards/Aesthetic collages
2. Character interviews
3. Map Showcasing

These three methods will help you share exciting info about your story without you selling out as a creative being of super unicorn strength.

What creative means do you like to use to engage people to connect with you and your stories? Share with me in the comments section below! We could all use as many helpful tips as we can get!

Meanwhile, be sure to check out the awesome online course I have coming for teen writers just like you:

This 13 chapter online course teaches you the fundamentals of great storytelling, including:

• Unseen Story Structure Every Great Work of Fiction Needs

• Pixar’s 7 Steps to Outlining a Story

• The Elements of a Killer First Chapter

• How to Create Characters that Matter

• How to Create a Love Triangle Readers Won’t Hate

• The Art of Showing AND Telling

• The Art of World Building

And so much more!

Find out more about this online Course here

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